NCRI – Mohammad-Ali Mansouri, political prisoner of the 90’s and member of PMOI, has been transferred on April 23 to an unknown location by Gohardasht prison gurads, with no news of him ever since.
Meanwhile, Masoumeh Mansouri, Mohamma-Ali’s daughter, has written a letter to the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights on Iran, calling for urgent action to determine status of her father and his whereabouts.
The letter reads:
Dear Mrs. Asma Jahangir,
My father, Mohammad-Ali Mansouri, has been a prisoner of conscience since 2007.
According to my fathers’ wardmates, prison guards have forcefully transferred him to the notorious Evin Prison in Tehran on April 23, a transfer ordered by branch 33 of Evin Court.
This is not the first time the judiciary tries to open new cases against my father so as to make his prison term longer than what it should be.
My father and three of his wardmates were held in Evin Prison’s ward 209 in June 2011 for three months. The section is is quite notorious for its terrible conditions. My father lost about 10 kgs of his weight while he was there, being once again interrogated and put under physical and psychological pressures.
I believe the transfer has been planned by the Iranian regime for further torturing my father, which has made me quite concerned. Although my father’s charges has not yet been announced, but he was last charged with ‘act against national security’.
The question is, how is it possible for someone who has been held in prison for ten years without the possibility of being in touch with the outside world, is regarded as a threat and danger to national security? Moreover, the notable point is that a crime committed inside prison should be punished with solitary confinement in that same prison. Not true for prisoners of conscience, though, as their crimes are defined by arbitrary interpretation of law, which may vary based on different occasions. Actually, I’m quite suspicious that my father’s transfer to Evin Prison is somehow related to the upcoming presidential election in June. I’m too concened about my father’s health.
The Iranian regime has a terrible history of inhumane behavior with prisoners of conscience. Thousands of prisoners were executed within two months in 1988 by Khomeini’s order, while they were still serving their terms.
Those responsible for the massacre are quite well-known and still holding positions in current government, an instance of whom is Mostafa Pourmohammadi, who’s currently the Justice Minister. There are many more cases of executing prisoners of conscience carried out after the 1988 massacre, with none of those responsible being brought to justice.
My father has been denied the right to meet with his family from the time he’s been transferred, so that we’re quite unaware of his physical or psychological status. From previous experiences, I’m afraid he might not be able to pull through this time.
My father was arrested and sentenced to 15 years in jail and exile in 2007 on charges of ‘participating in a ceremony held to commemorate victims of 1988 massacre’, ‘backing PMOI’, and ‘propaganda against the regime and acting against national security’.
My request from the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran is to act urgently to press the Iranian regime for giving information on my father’s status in prison and the reason for his transfer.”
With respect
Masoumeh Mansouri
